Showing posts with label 2011. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2011. Show all posts

27 Dec 2011

Artist 119: Mega






It's quite a feature we have for you now, the unstoppable force that is Mega, bags of attitude and a slogan straight from the street art revolution. Mega is instantly likeable, the street style and attitude infectious, his globe trotting lifestyle creates a unification of global counter-culture in his work which overflows with a panoply of colour, slick well chosen lines and a hawks eye for a good angle, I guess composition is something you master quickly at 2am in the arrondissement with a bag of spray cans and penchant for climbing. Mega is one of those that simultaneously breaks the mould but acts as a distillation of his genre, his work trades in alternative culture kudos, which like a precious currency, corporates try to co-opt to put some dents in their cold calculating exteriors and inject some life into their atrophied veins of style by committee, all the while they fund Mega, laughing from his tropical paradise knocking out work he couldn't help but do whether he was paid or not. He controls his style in this way creating slick and justified work that is skilled not only mechanically but works as an illustrator should by selling the message hard. This can be down to his street roots or more likely honed by editorial experience, either way he can put a point across with a tropical sense of glee and a palette rich with street colour. A true talent, it's Mega.

Who are you:
My name is Mega, I am an artist and illustrator. After a career as an art director for magazines in France (WAD) and abroad (Acclaim, Australia), I decided to devote myself exclusively to my love for art and illustration.

Masked warriors, wild girls, cult objects, swarming insects and other wild animals come straight out from the jungle in which my imagination leads his insatiable artistic struggle. From Nike to Volkswagen through Complex magazine, my images are found on all media. The invasion has begun, they are already among you. After living in Brazil, Argentina or Australia, my office is now located in Bali, the island of the gods.

What do you do:
Actions speaks louder than words so I draw all the time, and create new personal projects when my freelance schedule allows it. This is not my job, this is my life. I wake up and draw, drink a coffee and post an artist interview on my blog, have a lunch with a lot of chili then draw, prepare new projects, have a dinner with more chili, reply to my emails and draw again before getting laid and sleeping. This is what I do 7 days a week, 365 days a year, a little bit more every leap year.

How did you start:
As a kid I used to cut magazines all day long in order to arrange and paste new layouts for my music tapes. As a teenager I naturally became a writer, painting the walls of my city and the trains of my area in a really new school vibe. As a big boy I quickly turned to art direction for magazines, since I wanted my art to reach more people. I've had this love of drawing inside me for all my life. I guess I haven't been a really social animal, and always enjoyed to produce stuffs by myself, following my own path. No god, no master. I see art as a something serious I can play with, trying combinations that would give a new depth to things I draw.

A Personal statement about you or your work: 
I inspire, you expire.

Links: 

7 Dec 2011

Artist 118: Helena Maratheftis






Feature time again with the exuberant work of Helena Maratheftis aka Thefty, Helena's work comes at the viewer with a visual assault  of colour and pattern, her hand drawn typography one of the keystones of a style that blends a range of influences from Mexican tribal patterns to naive characters in a complex melange of colour and life. It's great to see such a unique style not afraid to use colour and intense patterns to bring her work straight to the fore. There is no mistaking her work and it is worth noting that throughout the many forms of her work, whether graphical or illustrative her keen eye for colour and the way she uses her distinctive palette always gives her work a vibrancy and edge. Helena creates movement and drama with her work but does well to contain and direct it making sure she can always get her message across. With best wishes for the future it's the wonderful Helena Maratheftis!

Who are you:
My name is Helena Maratheftis, and I draw, paint, and make colourful things. I am sometimes called ‘Thefty’, which is a nickname that became my creative alter ego. (‘Thefty’ comes from Maratheftis, not from any illegal tendencies!)

What do you do:
I've always drawn and painted, but I’ve recently had the opportunity to work with some very cool people on some fantastically eclectic projects. For example, I created life-sized plastic turtle sculptures for Selfridge’s Project Ocean, and I was involved in the art direction for an edible horror installation…for none other than Alice Cooper! I believe that colour makes everything better, so I try to take on any project where I can express that.

When I’m not painting or drawing, I’m either wielding my beloved camera, or baking a cake.

How did you start:
I took the scenic route to get here! I studied biology at university, and I quit my day job less than a year ago. After years of cramming my creative projects into my spare time, it’s great to finally be able to focus on them all day long!

A Personal statement about you or your work:
‘Helena Maratheftis is an artist/illustrator with a weakness for neon, rhinestones, and hand drawn text. Helena has always been enthralled by the visual world, and is enchanted by bold pattern and dynamic use of colour. She lives and works in London.’

Links: 
portfolio
@thefty
facebook
shop

Artist 117: David Ryan Robinson






Feature time again, and we have the naive stylings of David Ryan Robinson who although sans interview does have a great body of work that mixes humour with great staging and palette choices, with an extensive quality client list David excels in delivering his particular flavour of naivety that, often emulated and translated can be a powerful way of conveying the meaning or intent in a piece with an efficient brutalist clarity, it's worth noting that a naive style is not necessarily bound to the latest fashion or fad but does at it's heart contain a very useful visual language that illustrators can use to great effect. David has a great way of constructing his work that shows a decent eye for composition as he treads the line between complex and cluttered whilst utilising a gentle forgiving style that gives his work a great voice.

David Ryan Robinson
Freelance illustrator

David Ryan Robinson is a uk based illustrator and graphic designer who worked as freelance illustrator in Manchester for a couple of years, working with a variety of different companies which include the guardian, becks beer, the bbc, tba magazine, sports relief, the cornerhouse and afflecks palace. he has also had exhibitions all around the uk, including font bar and odder bar (manchester), nexus art café (nothern quarter), islington mill (salford) and leeds book fair (leeds). he has recently illustrated the latest album by allie moss, late bloomer.

David Ryan Robinson attended the University of Salford, where he got a degree in illustration and rekindled his love for chai and golden vanilla tea. he now works and lives in london.

Links:
portfolio
blog
@DRyanR

30 Nov 2011

Artist 116: Yiunam Leung







It's artist feature time here on the Rally and we have a great fashion illustrator lined up for you now. Yiunam Ling is one of those illustrators who can use the pared down approach that fashion illustration is known for, however she does it with an eye for detail and a sense of composition that sets her work out as something special. Yiunam pays great attention to the faces of her subjects which mean they lock eyes with the viewer and hold your gaze. She has a gentle touch with skilled brushwork that gives her work that translucency of traditional Chinese art that make her figures float. She uses this technique to great effect adding flow and movement that is the hallmark of good fashion illustration. the combination of intense faces and flowing faded figures give her work a ghostlike quality that allows her to infer more and leave out clutter or confusing elements, part of her skill lies in how successfully she can omit parts of her figures whilst still keeping the integrity of the image. Combining detail and lightness Yiunam has a refreshing style and is one to watch for the future.

Who are you: 
My name is Yiunam Leung, I am a fashion illustrator based in London

What do you do: 
Fashion illustrations, portraits with mixed media

How did you start: 
Fashion and art is what I love, combining the two is the perfect solution for me!

A Personal statement about you or your work: 
My work is greatly inspired by Chinese paintings and beautiful brush strokes. 

When I look at a design I try to capture the essence of the colours, concept imagining the flow of the designs and try to incoporate that in my illustration. 

I think the face is very important for me, this is where I start and probably spend the longest on, maybe 3-4 hours just on one eye building up layers and shadows, the rest I try to keep it more simple and suggestive using brush strokes etc like a chinese painting. I always relate the clothes to brush strokes and when seeing shows I imagine how I can translate from design to an illustration. I think this is important, because everyone can illustrate a photo from a catwalk, it may look nice but not very original, it is how you can see the clothes and how you translate them is important I think. 

clients include - vauxhall fashion scout, phoenix magazine, fault magazine, work magazine, fashion 156, urban retreat/Harrods to name a few.

Links: 

8 Oct 2011

Artist 115: Ramona Ring







A warm IR welcome to the fantastic Ramona Ring from Nuremburg, Germany. Still a student Ramona is already on the way to having herself a slick style with some great opportunity to make a name for herself with her sharp strong lines set against her pastel backgrounds. It's great to welcome an artist who can already be comfortable with her style and Ramona is just that. She is in command of a fresh clean approach which will push her straight into the deep-end as it's really saleable and on trend as well. She makes great use of digital methods, building on her hand drawn work with clever use of colour and pattern that not only gives a great texture but adds a sense of clarity and freshness. She does well fith her figurative work and her subjects are full of character with good efficient drafting which highlights the character and expression in her subjects whilst keeping her line simple and uncluttered. I think that this approach belies a good eye for detail which she will definitely use going forward. With her and others reaching out whilst still studying it is really good to see her with such a strong working style that as she refines will no doubt still retain her own character and strength with design. So really wishing the best of luck to Ramona in everything she does and I'm sure that her studies will give her even more confidence to achieve her dreams!

Who are you:
My name is Ramona Ring and I live in Nuremberg, Germany.

What do you do:
I study illustration and graphic design and I'm hopefully going to work as a full-time freelance illustrator once I have finished my studies.

How did you start:
At the moment I'm still at what I would call the start.

A Personal statement about you or your work:
I like mixing handmade things with digital. I find it very important to start by only using pencils and paper. Once a drawing is finished I scan it and combine it with different elements in photoshop. I love to make patterns or combine textures and to think about what color combinations I might use. Sometimes I start working with nothing but two or three colors in mind, that I find cool. I get inspired by music, books or weird photos.

Links:
portfolio
society6
behance
curioos

7 Oct 2011

Artist 114: Yaron Steinberg







Israeli artist Yaron Steinberg is our next feature and he really is a great catch, adept in a range of media, this multifaceted and talented artist brings us tight illustration, clever uses of backgrounds, oils street art object art and his wonderful sculptures like epic accumulations the physical froth of Yaron's imagination is burnt into our consciousness and he has a real knack at getting that leverage to make us think or feel. One of the most suprising things about Yaron's multiple working practices and methodologies is how successful they are all and so integrated do they seem it is hard to work out if this is cumulative or if each piece is outstanding in it's own right. It feels like each work and each artistic aspect of Yaron is simply there to give context to the others. This gives him a serene unity of purpose and taking his work together is like Yaron can exploit different parts of the brain simultaneously, which like his sculpture is an amazing exercise in form and composition, which is the main reason he can work so well in different media, his skill with the assessment an placing of an image in space and giving context from location is as key in sculpture as it is in street art and I think this will form the backbone of his most exciting works using light, space and form is hard to master and this is where Yaron stands out the most. Wishing him the best of luck in all he does and remember,it's just a ride and we can change it anytime we want.

Who are you:
My name is Yaron Steinberg and i am an artist from Israel

What do you do:
I am a freelance illustrator and graphic designer. I specialize in object illustrations.

How did you start:
I've been doing art since i can remember myself, I have always known that it was my calling and I have tried to perfect my craft ever since.

A Personal statement about you or your work:
I believe that good art comes form within, most of my inspiration comes from my experiences in life, and me trying to figure out my world and the world around me. I think that all creative people have this uncontrollable "factory" in this minds , a factory that feeds from experiences and translate them to inspiration.

Life is all the inspiration we need, and as Bill Hicks said :"The world is like a ride in an amusement park, and when you choose to go on it you think it's real because that's how powerful our minds are. The ride goes up and down, around and around, it has thrills and chills, and it's very brightly colored, and it's very loud, and it's fun for a while. Many people have been on the ride a long time, and they begin to wonder, "Hey, is this real, or is this just a ride?" And other people have remembered, and they come back to us and say, "Hey, don't worry; don't be afraid, ever, because this is just a ride".

4 Oct 2011

Artist 113: Piktorama






It's with great pleasure we can bring you a slice of the wonderful Piktorama, her joyful work really gets us going with her bold colourful style and ultra sweet characters. Setting out on her own as an illustrator after working for Nickelodeon as an art director Piktorama created her brand and filled it full of lively and fun work. She has a great loose working style that effortlessly captures a cheeky grin or sweet character and using a few well placed lines she distils fun and joy, pumping it through a great palette of strong complimentary colours that give her work a real buzz and class. she can work anything from fresh mints to deep rich reds and with her style it all works, still looks slick and keeps her touch. Many illustrators can be constrained by an ever tightening style and working practice, Piktorama however is one of those who can constantly explore and whether she is using pattern work character or hand made typography you get the feeling she is still at play, able to get results and crystallise her style but with an eclectic freedom that really benefits her work. A great illustrator with a sweet style Piktorama will remain eminently bookable in the future and I'm sure will have a lot of fun as she works it! So with the best wishes for the upcoming season and beyond, we give you Piktorama!

Who are you:
My name is Amaranta and I'm an illustrator from Venezuela. I work from home and I live with the 3 loves of my life… Juan and my baby twins JoaquĂ­n and Noah. I love shoes, music and cupcakes and now I'm training for my first half marathon which is next month. Let's see how that goes!

What do you do:
On a day to day basis I work in illustration and Motion Graphics. When I have free time I love to do exhibitions in any kind of techniques… acrylic, watercolors, prints, silkscreens. Doing group exhibitions is a lot of fun, you meet amazing people, exchange ideas and your work gets to be around the world. My work has been in Argentina, Brasil, Costa Rica, Spain, Germany, Australia, Russia, Lithuania & USA. 

I also like to blog. I have my own is like a daily journal and another one with some amazing and talented friends.

You can check them out if you like : )

Oh I forgot this one… my passion for shoes!

How did you start:
I always knew that I wanted to be drawing and creating all my life and I'm grateful that I still do it. As a teenager I had trouble with my parents because they wanted me to go to college and where I come from there wasn't a University for this "career".

My parents are happy now that I was stubborn and I kept going my way, but they still don't really understand what I do.

A Personal statement about you or your work: 
I consider myself a colorful and happy person, an artist, a mom and a good big sister, all of those things make me happy and that's what inspires to make my magic, detailed and playful world come to life.

Links:

23 Sept 2011

Artist 112: Stephanie Kubo








It's feature time now, and as usual we have a great artist for you guys now with the multifaceted Stephanie Kubo, hailing from the balmy climes of California Stephanie is the the driving force behind a range of working methods and styles that gives her a diverse but cogent portfolio that has her unique brand running through it. Whether it's her exquisitely detailed line art, her carefree but striking characters or her hand drawn typography there is a real sense her work has detail at it's heart. From her use of incredibly intricate worked patterns to her characters that distil the essence of a person with well chosen subtlety she has a way of knowing where to put a line to give the most value for money. With her "head dress" series she folds in her subtle efficient characters into her intense and detailed patterns, I think the real strength is in the ability to utilise a working practice that requires such care and intensity and it almost seems like a meditative act allowing her to keep her work distinct and create in a range of ways. It's great to see an illustrator who can branch out and still keep her body of work feeling distinct yet with her own stamp. So read on to find out a little more about her.


Who are you:
My name is Stephanie Kubo and I'm an illustrator living and working in Oakland, CA.

What do you do:
I make hand drawn illustrations with lots of pattern and linework, usually with little to no digital editing. Also, more recently I make hand drawn and carved/printed non-keyable fonts.

How did you start:
When I was little I used to copy cartoon drawings (Sailor Moon was a big one). As I got older it turned into copying photos, then drawing from life. In college i couldn't decide between graphic design and illustration, but illustration won in the end and it's just been snowballing since then.

A Personal statement about you or your work:
I like to think of my work as two different animals of the same species. One is usually ink and/or limited color, dark-looking illustrations, and the other is abstract, obsessive and organic drawings. Both of these use intricate patterns and dense linework.
More recently, however, there is a quickly growing third animal; typography work. I'm looking forward to seeing how these will all work together!

Links: 
portfolio
@stephaniekubo
blog

5 Sept 2011

Artist 111: Nolan Pelletier







A lovely illustration style to introduce to you all now with illustrator Nolan Pelletier. Toronto based Nolan uses a great naive style with a strong palette to grab attention and give the viewer a real treat. His work is strong and his technique honed into a great ready made and commercially savvy style which allows him to access all areas with his gentle legible visual language. Cats feature prominently in Nolan's work and he uses them as a great motif throughout his style and it gives his work great character. It's nice to see such a welcoming and light style using these techniques and great composition that can make his work special. He has a real talent for isolating the character of his subjects and his pared down style gives us both the feel and clever little details in his work. Nolan will definitely go from strength to strength with his slick productions and  I'm sure he will be snapped up so keep watching out as he carves his way through the crowded field of naive  styles and we wish him all the best in the future.

Who are you: 
Nolan Pelletier

What do you do:
Illustrator 

How did you start:
Started drawing cats and never stopped! 

A Personal statement about you or your work:
I'm an illustrator from Connecticut currently living in Toronto. My work has recently appeared in the New York Times and Fantasy Camp Press. I really like cats. I work in pen & ink and gouache. 

Links:
portfolioblog
facebook
@NolamPPelletier

3 Sept 2011

Artist 110: Jessica Townsend






Massive Illustration Rally love for the fabulous Jessica Townsend who hails from my beloved Cornwall, land of pasty factories, deserted tin mines, blue skies and murderous seagulls. So without to much further ado lets get into her work., and it's a real treat with some deep rooted pop art vibes, owing to her strong compositional skills.She has a great use of palette, bringing eye melting or colour straight at you with a great vector ensemble that gives a great kitsch vibe, a 90s dance anthem CD re-imagined and thrown at the viewer like a sparkling punch. Her work has a kaleidoscopic effect with great textures delicately housed within smartly crafted frames. Deliciously self conscious lines which appear like slick vector but trace hand drawn, soft and gentle, bringing the viewer along into her super sweet high contrast world. Invoking dream like fantasy and hard commercialism her work is both marketable and highly consumable, with it's familiar feel subverted into something a little more edgy. Jessica has a beautiful body of work and a guaranteed place on the hit list with her slick style. So here's to Jessica Townsend and we wish her the best of luck!

Who are you:
Jessica Townsend, a freelance Illustrator and Graphic Designer based in London but originally from sunny Cornwall!

What do you do:
I freelance as an Illustrator and Graphic Designer as well as teach Graphics and Photography. I also work on my own projects such as developing Children’s picture book concepts and expanding my greetings card line.

How did you start:
I am one of those people that was always drawing as a child and who knew from the very beginning that it was what I wanted to do with my life in some capacity. I completed an illustration degree at University College Falmouth, followed by a PGCE in Art Education. After University I worked in-house as a Graphic Designer which helped shape my style as I discovered the joys of computer aided design. I have been working on freelance projects intermittently since I graduated.

A Personal statement about you or your work:
I am obsessed with illustration and spend the majority of my time creating it, collecting it, or being inspired by it. The illustration style that I have developed allows me to use my love of freehand drawing with the flexibility of computer-aided design.

I collect Children’s picture books, spend a large proportion of time with a camera to my eye (to the annoyance of all who know me), have a thing for random vintage finds, really want a dog, and have an identical twin sister (who isn’t artistic at all!).

Links:

2 Sept 2011

Artist 109: Magdalena Szklarczyk







A real burst of high technical skill and a flash of elegance from our next artist, Magdalena Szklarczyk. Magdalena hails from the beautiful city of Cracow, Poland and brings a prodigious talent to the field of fashion illustration with her slick and edgy work.Highly developed appreciation of the female form and beauty give her a really special touch when drawing her subjects that gets you straight into the image and the feelings that give you that over all scene, which is the best part of fashion illustration. After all, if you just wanted to see the clothes you could have a photograph, but if you wanted context and feeling you would turn to an illustrator like Magdalena who can give you the feel of the piece as well as the sense of movement and tension that you can only get with the level of extraction that you gain from an illustration. One level removed you can begin to get back to the interpretation of what it meant to the designer and what spirit they were capturing with the garment. Magdalena brings you this as well as giving her subjects their power back, they are real girls with great expression and vibrancy. They are portrayed as being as important as the garments with the knowledge and truth that clothes exist for people and that the reality is that these girls are in control just as they are the subject. If the models are the context of a garment, Magdalena's work gives you a window into the whole point of fashion. Her work, independently of anything else is highly mechanically skilled and her eye for detail is really commendable. She may have come to fashion illustration only recently but she is really onto a great thing with her work and the perfect ambassador for Polish fashion illustration.

Who are you:
My name is Magdalena Szklarczyk and I'm a freelance artist, illustrator and graphic designer based in Cracow, Poland.

What do you do:
My works are a mixture of ink, pencil, watercolor and even nail polish.
My illustrations are inspired by fashion and music.

How did you start:
I've been drawing ever since I could remember...but my experience with fashion illustration began last December.

A Personal statement about you or your work:
I love what I'm doing.Fashion illustration allows me to combine my two favourite
fields: graphics and fashion. I love getting messages from people that liked my works,it's a wonderful feeling to be an inspiration for someone. But my dream is to fashion illustration has become more popular in Poland, we have so many talented illustrators here...

Links:
facebook
issue
behance